Not only are teachers designers, students are too. We can empower them as designers by giving them voice in assignments. By allowing students to create they take pride in their work. With imagination, students are going to learn more and be more actively engaged in tasks. And by making these tasks interdisciplinary we make them more related to real life and help students make lasting connections.
This means that students learn best not by filling out worksheets but by making stuff! And by stuff I don’t just mean towers and bridges but anything. Pamphlets, posters, presentations, letters and of course… towers and bridges…
I have always tried to allow my students to make things rather than just do worksheets but I know I’m on the journey and not at the destination. I look forward to including more well designed activities that allow students to design and create.
I agree! Another thing I've noticed since implementing these design elements is that there's a lot of character building as well. Our students learn how to cooperate with others and take responsibility and ownership for their learning and work. It's been nice to see my students growing as people as well as becoming more proficient German speakers.
ReplyDeleteI think you have it spot on! With students as designers we are giving them the tools to do more than complete a worksheet. They are designing, and building all through the process of learning. I cant wait to see the destination of our journey but I love the stops we are adding along the way.
ReplyDeleteHey Will! In math, we can sometimes forget that just having our students complete worksheets for practice is not the best way for them to learn. I have recently suggested to my CLT that we need to allow the students to DO something with the concepts they are learning (thanks, Doodles!). We've design a menu of project-based learning activities for the students to work on where they can create a video, a Powtoon, use BrainPop, write and record themselves teaching a lesson, etc... Some of the teachers thought the students would complain about having to do the additional work, but they LOVE it! They ask all class when they are going to be able to work on their menu projects.
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